White House aides see Trump as incapable
President’s lawyers try to block release of book that raises questions about his mental health
Donald Trump’s closest advisers believe he is “incapable of functioning” as president and have questioned his mental health, a book has claimed. Mr Trump is said to repeat stories word-for-word after 10 minutes and struggles to recognise old friends, according to an account by Michael Wolff, the author of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
DONALD TRUMP’S closest advisers believed he was “incapable” of being president and questioned his mental health, a controversial new book about his White House has claimed.
The US president is said to have repeated stories word-for-word within 10 minutes and struggled to recognise old friends, according to an account by journalist Michael Wolff.
Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, is also said by Wolff to have wondered whether Mr Trump would be removed by the 25th amendment, which is used to replace seriously ill presidents.
The president’s lawyers went into all-out attack mode yesterday by writing a “cease and desist” letter demanding the publishers pull the book before its release next week. They also announced legal action against Steve Bannon, the former Trump campaign chief and adviser, for defamation after he was quoted widely in extracts.
Mr Bannon yesterday attempted to soothe Mr Trump’s fury over his involvement in the book, calling him a “great man” whom he was supporting “day in and day out”. In turn, Mr Trump told reporters it was a “misnomer” to say the pair still talked and noted that Mr Bannon had “changed his tune pretty quickly” after his criticism became public.
One section of the book read: “The debate, as Bannon put it, was not about whether the president’s situation was bad, but whether it was 25th Amendment bad.” Mr Bannon was said to have given Mr Trump a 33.3 per cent chance each of impeachment, survival or resigning “in the wake of a threat by the cabinet to act on the 25th Amendment” before the end of his four-year term.
The row has been dubbed the most vicious falling out between a president and a former aide in modern history. Yesterday, more disclosures emerged from the book, which is based on interviews with more than 200 people. Some of the claims were about the ability of Mr Trump, 71, to carry out the demands of the presidency.
Mr Wolff reported that Mr Trump was known to repeat the same three stories “word-for-word and expressionfor-expression” with 10-minute gaps in between – down from 30 minutes in the past. He also claimed Mr Trump “failed to recognise a succession of old friends” while at his Mar-a-lago resort in Florida for the New Year break.
Mr Wolff wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that having spent time with Trump aides and family members “my indelible impression… is that they all – 100 per cent – came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job”.
Questions have been raised about Mr Wolff’s reporting, with some commentators raising eyebrows at sections of the book where whole chunks of conversations are quoted verbatim.
Charles Harder, Mr Trump’s attorney, sent a letter to Mr Wolff and publisher Henry Holt and Co demanding no further confidential information is disclosed. “Your publication of the false/baseless statements about Mr Trump gives rise to, among other claims, defamation by libel, defamation by libel per se, false light invasion of privacy, tortious interference with contractual relations, and inducement of breach of contract,” the letter read.
Mr Bannon was also sent a letter informing him of coming legal action.
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, described the book, due to be published on Tuesday, as “trashy tabloid fiction”, and said that questions about Mr Trump’s suitability for office were “disgraceful and laughable” in a White House briefing.